CLEVELAND –– 2-seed Alabama men’s basketball cruised past 7-seed Saint Mary’s 80-66 in the Round of 32 on Sunday night in Cleveland.
Sunday night’s win earned the Crimson Tide back-to-back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances for the first time since 1985-87––when Alabama head coach Nate Oats was in middle school. The Crimson Tide will play 6-seed BYU in the Sweet 16 in Newark, N.J. on Thursday.
There’s so much to dissect from this matchup at Rocket Arena. Here are three takeaways:
Omoruyi’s Slams Build Momentum
Slam dunks are perhaps the ultimate momentum builder in basketball. It gets the crowd screaming, the bench’s jaws dropping and provides a jolt of energy to teammates on the floor. Lately, Alabama has been running a ton of actions that involve alley-oops to the frontcourt and center Clifford Omoruyi is often the wide receiver.
The offseason Rutgers transfer has some big moments for the Crimson Tide in his first season in Tuscaloosa, but it hasn’t really been shown on an ultra-consistent basis. However, he’s grown to his peak at the right time.
Omoruyi had combined for 27 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks in the wins against Robert Morris in the Round of 64 and of course Saint Mary’s in the Round of 32. His presence in the paint has been pivotal to Alabama’s success all season and it’s becoming most apparent when it matters most.
“I hope something is clicking with him because when he’s playing really well like he was tonight, we’re a different team. I thought he was great,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “I think he’s more than capable of having a double-double every game out. He played 25 minutes and had 10 and 11 with two blocks, even had two assists tonight.
A big reason for Omoruyi’s recruitment to Alabama stemmed from his elite defensive abilities. This asset of his game is also peaking at the right time and it we got a good taste of it against Saint Mary’s big frontcourt.
“I thought he was really good and did a good job kind of challenging their — their bigs are good,” Oats said. “They’re big. They punch in the post a lot. You kind of look at what they did. [Mitchell] Saxen had a good game. He had 15 and 5. He shot 7 of 12 from the floor. [Harry] Wessels was only 3 of 9 from the floor. I thought Grant [Nelson], Aiden Sherrell, Cliff kind of affected those two guys a little bit, but they’re good, they’re big. They’re tough.”
If Omoruyi continues this early run in the NCAA Tournament, the sky could be the limit for the Crimson Tide.
Depth Helps the All-American
Sears was recently named the first Consensus First Team All-American in program history, and his shooting stretch toward the end of the regular season was a big reason for that. However, he hasn’t had as much shooting success as of late. He made just one 3-pointer on five attempts in Alabama’s opening-round win over Robert Morris and is 5 for his last 31 on perimeter shots dating back to the Florida game on March 5.
“Listen, I’ve got a lot of respect for Mark late in the year this year because there are times during the past with his shooting slump, he would have been ready to kind of feel sorry for himself, not fight through it,” Oats said during Saturday’s press conference. “Well, I think he’s done an unbelievable job showing how competitive he is, how much he wants to win, how tough he is mentally because yeah, he’s not making shots at the level that he’s used to.”
Sears was able to tally double digits with 10 points against Saint Mary’s, but he shot 5 of 15 from the field, including 0-4 from deep. Granted, Oats has commended him for his leadership and being the primary alley-oop passer to Omoruyi and the front court as he did so plenty of times in this game. Nevertheless, Alabama’s superstar had plenty of help on Sunday night against one of America’s top defenses.
Omoruyi and forward Grant Nelson were big factors in the second-chance points department as they each grabbed three offensive rebounds. Omoruyi finished with a double-double with 10 points, 11 total rebounds and two blocks. Nelson scored 12 points with eight total rebounds and a block.
Nelson helped get things started for Alabama on Sunday night with a big performance in the first half. But the same could be said for Crimson Tide guard Chris Youngblood, who led the team in scoring with 13 points (all coming in the first half), including a 3-for-3 clip from long range. Forward Mouhamed Dioubate played a big role in wearing Saint Mary’s out late in the first half as he scored seven points down the stretch.
Consensus All-American First Team guard Mark Sears and Alabama sixth-man Aden Holloway helped lead the Tide late as they combined for 15 points in the second half. Overall, each of them scored 12 points.
It’s worth noting that although freshman guard Labaron Philon didn’t join the double-digit scorers club with his six points, he led Alabama in assists (5), steals (3), tied for the lead in blocks (2) and was third in rebounds with six.
Depth was a key factor in this one as Saint Mary’s only had seven players who were on the floor for quality minutes, meanwhile, Alabama had six players reach 10-plus points. The Crimson Tide have the fastest pace in college basketball while the Gaels are in the bottom-10. The widespread scoring and quick ball movement seemed to really alter Saint Mary’s demeanor.
“I thought we kind of wore them out,” Oats said. “It was probably a smart timeout. He’s coached a lot of games, got to rest his guys, and he got a media timeout a minute later. I thought we were able to get into their lack of depth a little bit, and with the pace that they typically play, I don’t think that ever really affects them.”
Is 2024-25 Alabama Better Than Last Year’s Team?
Sunday night’s win earned Alabama back-to-back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances for the first time since 1985-87––when Oats was in middle school. The Crimson Tide also made its first-ever Final Four last season and is two wins away from another banner once again.
Throughout the offseason, Oats said this year’s team was the deepest and most talented he’d ever had since he was hired at Alabama in 2019. The competition this year though was much more difficult compared to last year as a college basketball record 14 SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament and seven of them made the Sweet 16––another record for any conference.
Overall, Alabama holds a 27-8 record and is eyeing a second-straight Final Four. But does Oats think this year’s team is still better than last season and can it reach the Final Four again? Well, he used Sunday night’s results in his response:
“Yeah, for sure,” Oats said. “We’re definitely deeper with more guys available. I thought Derrion Reid was great on Friday. Didn’t work out to play him as many minutes this game, but we have guys 10. I’m comfortable playing double-digit minutes. Grant Nelson was hurt. We got away without playing him hardly at all. Darrion was part of that, being able to not play Grant until about seven minutes to go in that game.
“Whether it’s injuries, foul trouble, just depth to wear teams out, guys just not playing well and you need somebody else to step up, I definitely think we’ve got it. No doubt, they stepped up big from last year’s run, even today. They went two bigs a lot. Two seven-footers out there.
“So he didn’t play as many minutes maybe as we normally would have liked him to do because we played Aiden Sherrell, Cliff and Grant a lot of minutes, and Aiden and Cliff don’t really play together much. Tonight we did a lot more. Mo’s minutes weren’t what we like to get him, and I’m sure they’ll go up moving forward. But shoot, you look at what he did in 15 minutes, he had 10 and 5 in 15 minutes.
“We’ve got guys that have efficient games, too, like Derrion Reid scored nine points in, what, 10 minutes or so on Friday, whatever it was. Guys are able to have efficiently minutes and play efficient in their minutes, which I think is big, as well.”
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